East Alamut District, Iran
Coordinates: 36.547600, 50.227300
Lambsar Castle is located in the north of Ghazvin plain in the Alamut area and northeastern Razmian village. This castle, the most famous castle of Alamut after the hangar of the Eagle, or the fortress of Hassan Sabah, was built in the Seljuk period during Isma’ili domination in the land of Alamut.
The fort was even stronger in the days of its boom because of its strategic location and its unique architecture, even from the Alamut Fortress.
The castle is located at the highest point of a wide and flat mountain and is surrounded by three sides with inert impassable cliffs and on the other end to a vast, flat ground.
Lambsar is still full of beauty and mystery for the people of Alamut
Lambsar was probably the largest and the most fortified of the Ismaili castles.
Only ruins remain of this magnificent fortress today. Very deep valleys surrounding the fortress make it impossible to access from the East and West sides.
The North and South fronts are the only possible ways to get into the fortress.
The Isma’ilis’ forts were the last line of defense against Mongol aggression in Persia.
The Mongols had a hard time conquering the Isma’ili forts. Hulaku Khan was disappointed with his commanders therefore he took over an army of 10,000 soldiers and moved toward Alamut.
In 1256 AD after a couple months the Meymoon-Dej (Meymoon-Diž, Persian: میمون دژ) fort surrendered to Hulaku’s army, and Imam Rukn ad-Din Khurshah was captured. Hulaku Khan asked Khurshah to order his followers to surrender, but Lambsar fort, Gerdkuh fort and Alamut fort did not follow the order.
Finally after a year of resisting, a cholera epidemic took many lives in Lambsar and the fort fell in January 1257.
Hulaku ordered the fort ruined and beheaded whoever had survived the deadly disease.
In 1275 AD and again in 1389 AD, small groups of Isma’ilis who had survived the Mongol invasions attempted to recapture Alamut, but their attempts were short-lived.
Know This
The location is a bit remote but can easily be reached by taxi from Qazvin (from taxi station at Minoudar Square) for 100,000 IRR.
